So, on Sunday as planned I went through to Edinburgh on the 12.30 train from Queen Street. Grey drizzly day, miserably Scottish. Met mum and had lunch at Bella Italia. Yum. And both slightly drunk on red wine. We laughed a lot and talked about out writing. Feels good to have someone who knows what goes on in my brain in that respect, and she was quite impressed by 'Christabel', the projects I'm working on with Jed.
After lunch, to the Mansfield Church, where we got there just before closing time. We only had about ten minutes for a quick look. I'm amazed that Phoebe managed to raise three kids in the early 20th Century and do this:
I must go back next month for a longer look. This place needs attention.
As far as the rest of my travelling goes, I've decided not to go back to Italy in April. I'm going to save money until the end of the years so I can go for longer - a month maybe - and travel farther, from Venice down to Sicily probably.
To keep myself sane I'll have a couple of short breaks over the summer. I'm thinking a long-weekend in Paris for the Gustav Moreau museum, and a long weekend in St Petersburg for the Hermitage. I'll need to figure out how to do the 2nd one cheaply. Fly to Scandinavia and take the train the rest of the way maybe. We'll see.